Portable Genealogy … Ancestry.com ‘s iPad/iPhone App

by C. Michael Eliasz-Solomon

Stanczyk waits on pins and needles and has his passions carried aloft in many directions as he waits for the arrival, God Willing, of Aleksander Benjamin & Chase Joseph.

So I thought I would take a shot at seeing what moje zona’s iPad could do for me in genealogical pursuits. Stanczyk was aiming at making the family tree more portable, so I could take it to archives and libraries and other genealogical venues.

Review. Well I liked the portability and having my research with me. It scores big points for portability. I give it even bigger points on the iPhone itself which seems almost ideal as a portable platform. It downloads to the iPad/iPhone and you can use it even without being connected to the Internet. Cost: $0.00. That’s right, it is free ! That is even bigger points in this jester’s book. But how does the software work? It is an excellent rendition of the software you’d find at your ancestry.com, family tree. It works about identical so no learning curve. And if you supplied pictures of your documents and linked up your evidence and added notes to your various ancestors, then all that is available to you! You can navigate the family tree from the home person or do a search just like online. Click on a person and there is his/her details. You can see the info (events) of his life, or family members(mom/dad/sibs/spouse/kids). As I said previous, your photos are there. Evidence is there too (i.e. links to ancestry.com documents). You can edit the info (add a mother/father/spouse/child/sibling). I have not tried this feature out, so I will not comment on this feature. I was impressed with the easy install. When I navigated to their website it detected that I had an iPad and asked me if I wanted to download their app. Downloading was fast and easy. In fact, it was so natural, I did not realize I was at the Apple Store. It handled the fact that I had multiple tree and lets me work with whichever one I want.

More later as I get brave and test editing and verifying it works across all platforms (iPad, iPhone, laptop and iTunes — that all are in synch).